Re-examining Modern Realist and Constructivist Concepts of World Politics

Abstract

This chapter presents a critical re-evaluation of realist and constructivist explanations of the mechanisms underpinning world politics and great power behavior. Initially, it considers the theoretical vitality of various realist threads, and points out to their limitations in explicating irregularities in the comportment of the contemporary great powers. Next, it assesses the salience of constructivist approaches in the same venue, and pinpoints respective constraints in this analytical framework. Finally, Smolnikov elaborates on the causal relationship between the stages of great power cycle and patterns of great power behavior. His proposition goes against the well-established classical and structural realist notions of the primary motives behind great powers’ policies that respectively confine those to invariable power and security enhancement disregarding their positions in the global distribution of relative power.